May 14, 2022 Editorial – Kaieteur News
Guyana’s President is reported to have said that the diaspora must not be “lazy” in taking advantage of the rich opportunities and sweet promises offered by this country. Quite a few members of the widely scattered Guyanese diaspora, largely concentrated in America and Canada, have contemplated whether to return to Guyana, or to stay where they are, and keep building on the foundations that they have erected for themselves.
On the other hand, some Guyanese have actually taken the plunge and retraced their steps to take up permanent residence in the land of their birth, their memories, their love. Still, the challenge lingers for many, regarding whether they should heed the national leader’s call, and make the move back to their homeland.
Indeed, the Guyana of today is not the one that they have left a decade or two ago. For those who left since the 60s, 70s, or 80s, this country would be like a new planet to them. It would be almost totally alien to what they had always known. That Guyana is gone, and is now replaced by a sweep of activity, a rush of intensity, that characterizes many segments. It is the pull that tempts, and is what political leaders have been marketing in their recent journeys, their speeches, and as they highlight (like politicians the world over) the bright side only. The arrival of oil, and its continued discoveries in massive quantities, has changed everything overnight. The local hustle and bustle have been ratcheted up to a fever pitch, with announced, projected, and actual shortages of skills, talents, and expertise in numerous areas, both oil and nonoil related.
The dilemma for Guyanese in the diaspora slowly and cautiously weighing their options is what is the best move for them to make. That is, should they stay in America or Aruba, or should they come back to Demerara? As examples, there are those Guyanese who have done well in what we call the trades, such as masonry, carpentry, and fixing sophisticated machinery, ranging from vehicles to appliances to technology. Some of the overseas based locals still have families, assets, even a real estate base here, which makes the attraction even more tempting.
The Guyanese diaspora is also aware that there is a construction boom underway in this country, and that there is serious shortage of skilled workers. The question for these Guyanese is what they should do, meaning, pack up their traps like they did when leaving here, and starting over again, but this time on familiar grounds, as in home? For sure, there must be a decent contingent of Guyanese engineers of different specializations, Guyanese accountants and auditors, and Guyanese with funds to invest in real estate and other businesses. As tempting as things are in Guyana, there is a strain of hesitation, a degree of fear, that still prevails about what is the best thing to do for themselves, given how Guyana is beneath the glitter
Comments
Google YouTuber Steve X NYC Performance.
He returned to Guyana in 2011, alleged that the PPP government gave him a terrible time starting up businesses
Got scammed with a land deal near Timehri. The land was government reserve and not owned by a private individual. US$50,000 gone.
Paid Guyanese workers to build his small house for another US$50,000,but forgetting that the windows need bars. His house gets broken into every other day.
Then a huge conspiracy happened where arson attempts were made on his Nissan Frontier pickup. He alleges that the locals there want to chase him from the country.
The YouTuber lost over US$200,000 investing in Guyana & today struggles as a journeyman mechanic trying to save enough to return to NYC.
This article never mentioned the crime which is off the charts.
I always wondered why the political elite & the businessmen who are connected to the 1% are hardly subject to the social ills of Guyana?
Instead, you see bandits murdering the average Guyanese person of a gold chain.
Look at the deals that the Chinese companies, Alphonso, National Hardware owners, Shell and others are signing with the oil companies. How come they are never subject to robberies like the average Guyanese?
I am interested serving as a volunteer within the Ministry of Education Technical Education department. I am 81 with a sound Engineering and skilled trades background. Supported with degrees and trades certifications. Came to Canada in 1975 after teaching for approximately 7 years at the Guyana Industrial Training Centre. Was a regular visitor until 2019 when the epidemic started. I am retired but is active among High Schools in Canada encouraging students to get into Trades.
Hi there Mr. Frederick,
Maybe you can contact the Headmaster of School of the Nations Dr. Brian O’Toole?
He is a very helpful man. I believe that he is an expat from Australia. He went through an armed robbery a few years ago, but he is still in good spirits.
The Moderator is also a regular visitor, though I am unsure if the Mod travelled back to Guyana during COVID.
Guyana’s President who attended the same high school as I did, was either a child or not born when I emigrated from Guyana in 1977 so he doesn’t know what it feels like to give one’s best and then have to run and leave behind all assets. I had returned from overseas studies in 1967 and concluded that if I worked as hard in Guyana as I would need to do elsewhere, i would “make it” and so I did. However, the need to be careful about what I said and to whom along with a home robbery and a failed “set up robbery” at the govt. company where I worked, were reasons to bail out.
There are many who returned from overseas after schooling but were not respected. One who has since passed, went down to the Min. of Health on behalf of the UN, had to point out a problem to the man assigned to him; that man promptly got a doctor to give him 3 months’ stress leave so he could dodge being instructed and reprimanded.
What the President and others need to appreciate is that not everyone is motivated by money particularly older individuals. There are more important thing in life such as, safety from criminals or political cadres, health care, access to certain public services without the need to have “contacts” or give a “raise” to those in positions of authority.
There have been many fires destroying/damaging police properties that appear unsolvable for one reason or the other. There are reports that visitors are targeted on arrival at the CJ airport with word of their destination passed on to accomplices for robbery on the way to G town or on arrival. Mr. Albert, you speak the truth; Mr. Lew-a-King, I am your age but not as brave as you; I wish you well and hope you are safe in a country that one year ago was ranked as great for eco- tourism but also the 6th most dangerous one in the world.
For someone in their senior years, living in a gated community might mitigate the risks of armed robberies and murder, but that costs over US$300,000 these days due to the demand from the oil companies.
Speaking of gated community:
“… but that costs over US$300,000 these days due to the (high) demand from … oil companies.”
Who can afford this? It’s a foreign takeover, if you ask me.
Region 4 land prices start from the US$Million dollar figure, and I’m not exaggerating. There is greed going on, with the foreign companies letting the taxpayer foot the bill.
A few years prior to emigrating from Guyana, I had a friend in for dinner. He sat in my living room and said “my friend, you are living as a rich prisoner”. That’s what being in a gated community is all about; the law abiding folks are in gated communities while the criminals are running around as free souls. Who needs that bs in his late 70’s? No my friend; I contributed for nearly 38 years through organizations which help children in Guyana. It’s someone else’s turn “in the barrel” while the govt. bring the violent criminal elements under control..
Thank you for your contributions, but I honestly believe that if one is in their senior years, they better find a way to get a firearm license, or at least hire the security agencies that are popping up, because crime here is crazy.
Young man coming in from Canada and England getting murdered the next day. Now imagine a senior man getting targeted by these bandits.
Oil monies have done nothing to the average Guyanese except increase the prices for shelter and food.
After reading those comments who wants to go back to Guyana, also the racism.
We don’t have well-off White men going postal on non-whites, though the Portuguese class views us non-white Guyanese with disdain, yet they are insanely rich in Guyana.
When Guyanese started moving to the USA, they realised that the White people view a Guyanese of African, Indian, or Amerindian descent as the same thing.
There will always be racism in the world whether be in Guyana, the US, China etc. so we all have to decide where to live and cope with the poison.
As for the rich Portuguese in Guyana, are you saying they didn’t work for what they acquired? What is rarely accepted is that some ethnic groups unlike the Portuguese and some East Indians aren’t risk takers/entrepreneurs. Even when some are educated and keep current to retain marketable skills and spend less than one earns, many will not be inclined to invest their savings in a small business and grow it. Look at all the talkers in the opposition with their fine education, how many have business/management expertise and own more than the proverbial “pot to piss in”?
I am not Portuguese although one of my grandparents was, and even though I was a working stiff all my life, I have a real problem with those folk being run down for having the natural skills and guts to be successful business operators.
If we used the argument of working hard, every Guyanese whose ancestor was enslaved from the Dutch Empire would be billionaires by now.
I can say with a qualified opinion that Guyana is worse than Equatorial Guinea in terms of corruption and oppression.
The tyrants in EQG embezzle money, but that is far as they go.
However, the politicians in Guyana embezzle, export narcotics, hire Phantom Squads and exterminate ethnic minorities using paramilitary squads. I read that 1,000 young Black Guyanese were murdered from 2001 to 2006.
I wouldn’t return to Guyana as long as the current regime is in power.
The oil money is being funneled into the pockets of the politicians, and redistributed to the cocaine exporter class of businessmen you see taking Photo Ops in the Guyana dailies.
Aubrey Norton will stand up for us. So will Mark Benschop if he returns to Guyana:
https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2022/05/19/opposition-leader-in-visit-to-little-africa/
omg how can the Guyanese government have people living in prehistoric living conditions, but they come here in Queens to encourage us to return to that polarized hellhole of inequality and oil curse?
You should hear and see what these politicians tell us in their Diaspora meetings; to return to Guyana to invest in condos, housing schemes and we will get contracts in “upstream and downstream oil and gas”.
I’m not investing a single penny to those racial politicians. I send a lot of money because starvation is rife in Guyana right now.
Illiterates in PPP govt discriminating against Female Doctor, who worked hard to become a doctor but they set up barriers because of PPP discrimination:
After watching this video, I get that:
1) Systemic racism exists within the current Guyanese government, to the extent that no matter how hard one tries to work hard for the better of their lives and children, race is a factor in how one becomes rich or forced to be poor in Guyana.
2) “GDP growth does not equate to poverty reduction”. So no matter how much bragging the wealthy capitalists boast of massive GDP increases, poverty remains in Guyana.
3) The Diaspora is being conned and lured into the problems of Guyana. The host describes that the Guyanese government wants the Diaspora to return, but the host asks why would his son leave his admission to Oxford University to live in a racially hostile country like Guyana, where Black Guyanese are treated as second class citizens and have no chance to elevate their social, economic & professional standing.
Emily, please give me your views on the Canadian government lying to immigrants to work as a lower class worker:
I like the way the Premakumar guy told the TV host that he doesn’t want to work as a slave in the White man’s country!
There seems to be fraud going on there in Canada.
The professionals complained that they were promised jobs, that they were ideal immigrants, yet they were condemned to working like unskilled laborers and refugees.
Who are telling these professionals to immigrate to Canada with the promise of jobs in their fields?
Why is the Canadian government letting this happen?
Emily, apparently according to a Canadian-Guyanese, “Jamaican mothers” and their children are the problem. What dog whistle is that?
What’s nonsense are you talking about the Canadian govt. lying to professionals? from where did you get such information? not even in the days when the only people of colour who came as maids, did the Canadian govt. lie to anyone. If you wish to know the truth, the mistake made was to allow those women from Jamaica who had left 3 and 4 children behind on the understanding that after serving the agreed term, those children could join their mothers. Many of them could barely read and write, could only breed and when their children who were left with grandmothers finally arrived in Canada they were undisciplined and generations later, many not all, have been a source of trouble for society particularly, in Toronto and its surrounding cities.
I fled from the Burnham govt. and its policies and have been in Canada for 45 year. I was Allowed into Canada as an immigrant from Guyana NOT encouraged or conned to be here by the Canadian govt.
Over the years, I may have been denied a promotion that would have elevated me to one grade higher than that when I retired at, so what? that’s small change compared with the good healthcare, peace of mind from political harassment and choke and robbing, house invasions that still exist in Guyana. I have seen my children grow up all educated to become an accountant, an epidemiologist and a captain in the largest fire dept. in Canada.
That’s what the Canadian govt. allows one to achieve, when one works hard, is law abiding, the children stay in school and out of trouble; once one does that, one will make it.
My friends, there are thousands of us of various ethnicities from many different countries who, have/are making it in Canada. Anyone who claims otherwise is a liar, lazy or didn’t study and should have returned to their homeland as the failures they are. Canada is not the US and even in the US, there are thousands of successful Guyanese and other immigrants who, not withstanding the current political and racial issues, are living happy, successful lives and raising children to follow in their parent’s footsteps.
So Emily, please stop writing about matters of which you are so ill-informed as you come across as not doing your home work or you are consorting with the wrong people. There is an old saying, soar with the eagle and don’t remain with the turkey on the ground. Canada is a darned good place to live and most communities are great raise a family.
What anti-Black dog whistle you got there my friend?
“I fled from the Burnham govt. and its policies …”
And countless others similarly fled the country from the Guyanese tyrant. The man totally destroyed the homeland and created hell for the people.
MP
Excuse me,
I’m assuming that you left this highly misogynistic, racist and inflammatory comment for me.
If you do live in Canada, then you are espousing the worst racist views ever.
How do you know if those Jamaican mothers and their children are not being deliberately discriminated by the Canadian government so that their children will never go up the social ladder?
What if those young Black children never had a chance to get a proper education because their mothers were working 10 hours a day to make Trudeau’s donors richer in a underfunded community that can afford to hire police.
The Toronto Police was in a huge scandal when they were found racially profiling 8-year-old Black males for learning to ride a bike in the Jane borough of Toronto.
What do they have to do with your tone deaf statement that you are doing better, so everyone else must have done something wrong?
Just because you and your children were never victims of racism or police brutality doesn’t mean that Canada is a land of milk and honey for BIPOC people.
The reason why Guyana will NEVER develop is people with your mentality obsessed with anti-Black racism.
I have no idea what you folks are talking about. Can you please provide us some background info into the Jamaican mothers who migrated to Canada leaving their children behind in the care of family members?
I think the official term for children caught up in this situation is ‘barrel children’. Why barrel children? It’s because the parents living abroad would often ship them barrels of stuff to meet their needs.
In any event, this is a terrible situation for everyone involved, especially the children.
Chris. I hadn’t heard the term Barrel Children used previously. However, instead of trying to explain about the Jamaican mothers of whom I spoke, I refer you to the internet. I suggest you Google: “West Indian Domestic Scheme(1955-1967); it’s very informative and provides the history of Black women immigrating to Canada and how some did very well after completing their contracts of service.
While a few came from Guyana and other parts of the Caribbean(Jean Augustine of Grenada as mentioned in the article), most as far as I know, originally hailed from Jamaica. Most never took the opportunity to go to school even though secondary education and adult education classes were and remain free in Ontario. I believe, but don’t know for sure, that cultural differences between Jamaicans and other Caribbean countries where children are born out of stable family relationships, created problems for Jamaican offspring who were left behind in the care of grandmothers. Speech patterns may have been contributing factors also.
As someone who has given 28 years of voluntary service in both a Social Housing complex run by a Jamaican group and 40 years in a Guyanese Non-profit, I can say with all certainty, that Jamaican folk are very different from Guyanese and most likely, other Caribbean people; they tend to be more direct, pushy and aggressive.
I have a few Jamaican professionals among my friends(their parents weren’t of the domestic class) and they are great people, but all can get in one’s face unless one pushes back. Two years ago I was at a dinner party, and a Jamaican dentist who was also a guest, asked some extremely personal questions of the host’s finances, a Trinidadian anastiesiologist. Believe you me, had the host’s wife a Jamaican, heard any of those questions, she would have thrown out the dentist and his wife who was also a medical professional. The dentist even though suave, was way out of line.
That in-your-face attitude fails completely when one has little education and makes no effort to self-improve. The result was failure for many of the referenced women in Canada and worse yet, they were incapable of inculcating anything positive to their children or grandchildren born in Canada with the youth drifting into crime. Very sad.
I am Black also, not a racist and speak the truth. Regrettably, when a Black man calls out other Blacks for their inappropriate behavior, he is castigated by some who instead, should acknowledge the truth and try to solve the problem.
At age 81, I have done enough for my community and the world itself; have no apologies to make; I owe no one anything other than the great country of Canada which admitted me and family and so far, have given us a good life. Stay safe.
Thanks WIC.
“questions of the host’s finances, a Trinidadian anastiesiologist.” WIC.
Uncle, the word is anesthesiologist.
I don’t want to be impolite but I think it’s important to pay attention to details – proper grammar and syntax.
Canada is a bad country for men who don’t got money. You’re a senior so your experience is totally different from the younger men who are living in a hell right now. These hashtag Twitter activists are enabling tyranny.
Unless one goes to school anywhere in the world, one will eventually suffer the consequences of little or no relevant education even, in present day Guyana. The world is changing too fast not to continually upgrade one’s education and skills.
Those young men of whom you speak, probably failed to graduate from high school which in Canada, is free. Had they graduated, student loans were/are available to attend approved college and university courses. Did they take advantage of furthering their education? I suspect not.
No one gives us anything in this world for free and should we expect that. One has to work hard for what one wants, starting at entry level and not that of the boss, and one must perform at a satisfactory level to hold the job and be promoted. Even when some have decent jobs, unfortunately, too many youth wish to drive BMW and Lexus vehicles overlooking the maintenances costs that are a continuous drain on one’s resources. Many of us older folk spent our money on domestic made autos and improving ourselves and educating the children and also helping some of them to buy their own homes.
As for having money when one is old, men can spent it all when young, in some cases chasing women that are not theirs and hope to die before its all gone or, they can save some and hope you live to die leaving the balance for family; it’s a simple choice even though one doesn’t have a contract with God.
In Canada, even when one’ employer doesn’t have a pension plan, there is the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) to which all employees have contribute while working and payable from age 65 with an age reduction to 60 available. There is also Old Age Security(OAS) which is available once one files his income tax returns. While one can live regally on the above, one will not live on the streets(many are mental cases in most cases), so the idea that Canada is bad for men who don’t have money is not accurate unless they want to drive BMW’s and Lexus and can’t afford such.
I am not a subscriber to Twitter so I don’t know to what tyranny you refer; to me however, tyranny is what Russians is doing in Ukraine, the soldiers supported by the Chinese in Mynamar, some Muslims trying to impose their religion by force on others.
Education doesn’t guarantee a job in Canada anymore. My nephew left Canada a few years with his inheritance, he is driving a minibus and tells me that he is happy in Guyana than living in Canada.
For me, of all the West Indians, Jamaicans stand out way above the rest. For instance small reference, Caribana was going on since 60’s, still fighting for traction (trinis??) Jamaicans had their own Cultural center a long time ago, they tend to do less talk more action.My wife has Jamaican friends, mostly women, any many are separated from their husbands, had to bring up their children on their own, and I must agree the pressure of North American life style, is/was not kind to them
I’d rather retire in Guyana and risk getting robbed, than stay in Canada and get hassled by biased police because of a liar.
What’s the liar’s name?
That’s the thing. It’s a crime to mention the false accusers.
This is why I’m saving up my retirement to emigrate back to Guyana or a country where men are not treated like second class citizens. Women got too much rights in Canada to get away with perjury
Guyana got the $10 million dollar girl who got jailed for trying to extort her boyfriend with false accusations.
She got arrested though. Publicly shamed in her village too. My friends who got mad money left Canada for Latin America countries because plenty woman like to lie to the police. Justin Trudeau also wanted to seize the bank accounts of dissidents. This is why I want to transfer my assets. I don’t want the Canadian government taking my retirement to pay a Twitter activist.
Me dunno what to tell you man.
Those ABCEU countries are socially unstable and are unsafe for Black lives, and members of the Islamic faith. They getting gunned down like nothing while the perpetrators and their people become richer and richer.
Dem country got the immigrants working like dawg to make White Landlords richer and wealthier.
As much as I criticise the PPP, we country stable.
President Ali is somewhat of a good role model and doesn’t appear to thrive on controversy these days.
When one defends the Portuguese class in Guyana, and writes ill of Jamaican mothers, of course one will think that it’s written by a White nationalist waiting to gun down a few non-whites.
They wouldn’t believe that an 81-year-old who identifies as Black would post such content in this day and age.
Just prove me wrong. The truth is always shocking and always hurts. The Portuguese stole nothing from the Black or East Indian or Amerindian people in Guyana. They worked hard and took risks as business people, which would cause you to lose sleep and no doubt, they did lose sleep.
When you save your money and return, I recommend you invest some of those savings and you can be as rich as the Portuguese; I bet however, you won’t. I will have long passed from the scene, but I know you don’t have it in you to take the risk to get rich, so don’t bad mouth those who risked it all including, not fleeing from Burnham and his cohorts as many of us did.
The only error I made recently here was the misspelling of anesthesiologist to which Brother Man refers, and the truth of the matter, I caught it just as l clicked on the Post Comment but couldn’t retract it, Stay safe and open-minded.
The Portuguese benefited from White privilege.
I was warned about talking people names, but you think those Portuguese families who own prime shore bases worked hard for what they got? Did they work honest? Did they obey the laws of the country?
Were they working for minimum wage and paid their PAYE?
If everyone worked honest as they did, everyone in Guyana would be rich.
White woman laughs & rejoice at African Americans getting murdered in Buffalo. America is a racist hellhole:
The virulent cancer of racism in America is prevalent from sea to shining sea, from coast to coast and from north to south as it has been for four hundred years.
Unfortunately, there are no known cures for it. And it is impossible to legislate it out of existence. God help us all!
There is no escape from those White nationalists.
My African-American brothers want to emigrate from AmeriKKKa, showing keen interest in we country, but at the same time we country being plundered by the colonists.
I guess my brothers don’t have a choice, because of the risk of being targeted in America is high.
These racist mass murderers get a slap on the wrist for these crimes.
America and Canada are not good countries to raise a family anymore. Too much division. I got about 8 more years to retire and I don’t want to spend the last decades of my life in a country like Canada. It’s a bad country for men.
My parents are what you refer to as “Indo-Guyanese” with “Indian” first and last names. I was born in the USA, so they had to Americanize my first name to prevent me from being denied opportunities due to having a “foreign” name.
I would like to say that, from the bottom of my heart, that laughing at the deaths of middle aged and elderly Black Americans is no laughing matter.
The racist mass murderers deserve the electric chair or firing squad.
It’s quite sad that Black people are being gunned down, while we have pro-White apologists posting that the Portuguese worked hard for what they have, so we should celebrate them in Guyana when they get massive contracts due to corruption and benefiting from White privilege during British Guiana.
My man Raphael telling we Guyana currency going to be come a superpower:
De man Raphael talking a lot fluff (beating around the bush). After listening minutes to his rambling about the Guyana dollar and sovereign fund, without to point, I got tired of the fluff and shut it off.
Raphael should be a politician.
Message him your feedback on YT, or you can talk to him in GT. He does be in “downtown Georgetown” every other day making video. I saw him a time and gaff with he. He’s a Can-Guyanese remigrant who has high hopes for Guyana. He likes GT more than Canada.
omg why is canada respecting the “rights” of a hateful mass murderer?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/supreme-court-canada-bissonnette-mosque-shooting-sentence-parole-1.6466847
This scumbag would get the electric chair if he did this in my country. Sadly enough, once he gets released in 25 years, he will be better off than BIPOC and LGBTQ people in Canada.
Bring back the death penalty in Canada.
Age, you are right. Canada protects racists and mass murderers.